Longtime Bonanno Santora Faces Trial of His Life

What is most amazing about reputed capo/former underboss Nicholas "Nicky Mouth" Santora -- whose criminal roots go back to the 1960s and whose mob career included years in Greenpoint's Motion Lounge social club during the FBI's 1970s Donnie Brasco infiltration of the Bonanno crime family -- is the fact that he's still alive and a power in gangland.

At least he was a power on the street until his 2012 arrest by federal agents in an unrelated case. In 2013, he copped to a federal extortion charge in Brooklyn and was sentenced to 20 (or 30, reports disagree) months in prison. He was serving that sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pa., when he was indicted in 2013 along with his alleged crew, which consisted of associates and soldiers, by Manhattan's DA, Cyrus Vance. (See actual indictment, which is 158-pages long and can be saved as a PDF.)

The three mobsters now on trial with Santora were not granted bail. Prosecutors described Santora's fellow defendants as Bonanno family soldiers. Their names: Ernest Aiello, 36; Vito Badamo, 53; and Anthony Santoro, 52.

And despite his has-been brokester reputation Santora was something of a mob innovator (or at least he was smart or fortunate enough to have an innovative guy or two under him), according to prosecutors.Santora and members of his Bonanno crime family crew reportedly developed some novel tweaks to the mob's old-school systemic rackets. For example, prosecutors highlighted how Nicky Mouth's crew had formulated new methods for earning that relied less on violence.

Violence, or the lack thereof, could be a key hurdle for Manhattan prosecutors in the courtroom in this case, as the indictment doesn't include a single murder. Prosecutors will recall Vincent Asaro's fresh acquittal on racketeering and other charges, including an alleged vicious murder committed with a dog chain used as a garrote.

Asaro and Nicky Mouth also are somewhat close to the same age, 80 and 73, respectively, and some pundits believe age was a likely key factor contributing to Asaro's getting off.

The Santora case also is somewhat reminiscent of the one Philly acting boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi faced. On May 23, 2011, Ligambi and others were arrested by the FBI and held without bail on racketeering, loan sharking and gambling-related charges. Nearly three years later, on January 28, 2014, Ligambi was released from prison after two mistrials.

A unanimous verdict against Ligambi proved elusive for two different juries. That case was viewed by many as a steroid-infused nickel-and-dime gambling charge. It also had no murders attached to it, which may have been an important factor among the jurors in deciding (or failing to decide) that case.

Asaro and Ligambi also benefited from jurors failing to believe government turncoat witnesses. Asaro's included a parade of government witnesses, including the prosecutors' most important turncoat in the Asaro trial, Gaspare Valenti. An Asaro relation, he was ultimately viewed as flawed and was probably a liability. There was an especially strong sense that Valenti was seeking a nice payday from the government rather than justice against the Mafia.

As for Uncle Joe's case, jurors from one of the trials had problems with at least one witness. In fact jurors reportedly were quoted saying that they found Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello especially troubling to believe because while testifying he evidenced clear bitterness towards his cohorts in crime from the witness stand.

Truth is, many mob cases in recent years have not been the clear cut unparalleled successes that prosecutors such as New York's Rudolph Giuliani achieved against the Mafia in the huge RICO victories of the 1980s and 1990s.

"When I leave, you're going to take over this neighborhood — you got to know how, what the f--k you're doing...

"Acting like a clown — those days are over. You gotta act like you're supposed to act. You understand?"

In some instances, particularly the trials of Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace and Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli (both longtime Colombo members who'd held top slots in the hierarchy for years), the mobsters were acquitted by jurors of top-count murder charges, but were found guilty on conspiracy and / or lesser charges, allowing federal judges to impose draconian sentences anyway. Since many of these wiseguys are also oldfellas, chances are strong that they will die in prison.

Manhattan DA Showing up Fed's?

Santora and others were charged only two weeks after the New York FBI office had, for the third time, reduced its number of agents working organized crime, the New York Times reported, noting that the decision to implement the LCN cutbacks was due to heightened threats posed by cybercrimes and global terrorism

The total remaining FBI agents investigating the Mob adds up to roughly three dozen, according to the Times sources, who are facing the entire New York Mafia "some 700 so-called made members and 7,000 associates." Back in 2008, there was — and had been for decades — a separate squad of 10 to 20 agents devoted to each crime family.

When announcing his indictment, New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. noted that "Today’s indictment is the absolute heartland of what organized crime prosecutions are about – prosecuting in one fell swoop the diversified rackets of organized crime families.

“The charges against this Bonanno crew and their captain, Nicholas Santora, make clear that traditional organized crime refuses to go away. ...."

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said: “The organized crime activity described in the indictment is as old as the Bonnano crime family, and as relatively new as on-line betting and trafficking in highly addictive Oxycodone. Either way, it’s corrosive to society and lines the pockets of those who use or sanction violence to enrich themselves....."

Prosecutors said Santora's crew ran a multimillion-dollar Costa Rican-based online sports betting operation. Some were recorded planning to sell hundreds of thousands of pills (at $5 a pop) to treat pain (oxycodone) and erectile dysfunction (Viagra). Other charges include running a loan-sharking business.

Santora in court looking his age.

In a 2014 courtroom proceeding, recordings were played. In one, Santora told Vito Badamo, who he allegedly was grooming to take over his crew, to quit "acting like a clown."

"When I leave, you're going to take over this neighborhood — you got to know how, what the f--k you're doing," the then-capo added.

"Acting like a clown — those days are over. You gotta act like you're supposed to act. You understand?"

Santora's dressing down is interesting and even somewhat comical. All this talk of acting appropriately, etc., comes from a mobster who showed up at a sitdown clutching a pillow.

Sitdown recorded by turncoat
The sitdown was held at Tony's Pizzeria in Corona, Queens, the same neighborhood where Ndrangheta member Gregorio Gigliotti, along with his wife and their son, owned several businesses tied to a Calabrian Mafia drug trafficking operation, including the restaurant Cucino a modo Mio on 108th St. in Corona, according to the criminal complaint.

Genovese capo Anthony "Tough Tony" Federici owns the nearby Park Side Restaurant, and supposedly runs the neighborhood. Members associated with Federici may have faced Santora across the table, but that's speculation. It sounds more likely that it was an interfamily affair.

Santora represented mob associate Joseph Galante, Jr. at that sitdown over a $30,000 debt. Galante owed that amount to a mortgage broker. The associate had flipped and was secretly recording the sitdown.

Santora, who admitted his presence was intended to enforce the threat of violence to support whatever was decided at the meeting, had undergone heart bypass surgery shortly before the sitdown. Holding the pillow tightly to his chest helped relieve his pain. Or so he said.

The longtime gangster was also caught on a wire saying ostensibly incriminating statements to Bernhard, the president of Local 917 in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Santora had said he'd "put two holes in the head" of a crime family enemy. (Wonder who that could be....)

Santora's roughly two-dozen arrests, a rap sheet that dates back to 1966, and his most recent federal conviction in which he's serving 24 months in prison for extortion also were spotlighted.

Santora's attorney, Michael Alber, at the time expressed his intent to argue that "double jeopardy" applied in the DA's case — since Santora was already charged in federal court for the alleged crimes. He also said Santora was in prison during the time when some of the newer alleged mob activity occurred.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announcing indictment.

Low-key enterprise corruption case
Specifically, Santora, sometimes called "Nicky Cigars," and the others are on trial for enterprise corruption, the state's version of the RICO act.

Prosecutors said the evidence included recordings (of telephone calls as well as 10 months' worth of discussions inside Santora’s car) and testimony from at least two former members of the Bonanno family. One reportedly is James Tartaglione. As noted, Joseph Massino is likely the other.

Still, press reports haven't named the second witness. In fact this trial hasn't generated a fraction of the attention the Asaro case did. This could mean the media, including wire services, overall, are less fascinated by a mob figure whose only claim to fame was his association with Donnie Brasco. Another potential contributing factor to this lack of coverage: Manhattan prosecutors are perhaps not leaking as much information to reporters. Perhaps, still stung by Asaro, they are looking for this to play out as a low-key trial. However, Asaro was on federal trial. While Nicky Mouth was arrested by federal agents, including the DEA, his trial is playing out in Manhattan.

Other points prosecutors say they will prove:

Santora ran a tight ship, collecting a portion of all the proceeds from criminal activities in which his underlings were involved. (Which is exactly how Cosa Nostra is supposed to work.)

Santora was proactive, stepping in to settle disputes.

Santora also seems to have engendered an extremely loyal crew. According to the DA, his crew is protecting him as much as possible.

“One of the most important rules of the enterprise was to protect the members at the top from criminal liability,”one prosecutor said. This seems to hold true more for Santora than it did for Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, whose own brother-in-law flipped on him, as well as a legion of turncoats. One of them told me he believes that, during the end of Massino's reign, he'd been calling in his guys a lot more often than was usual. My source thought Massino may have been preparing for a sort of housecleaning. Now he says he believes Massino may have foreseen the possibility of losing at trial and was looking to accumulate intel he could use as bargaining chips.

Defense lawyers said their clients had been unfairly targeted by aggressive law enforcement agencies desperate for a major bust.

They described the case as an amalgamation of several small crimes committed by separate individuals that had been deliberately linked to Santora, including an Internet gambling site in the Bronx and a loan-sharking business run by two officials at Long Island's Teamsters Local 917, which represents beer truck drivers.

“The cops got it in their heads the Bonanno organized crime family was involved,” Adam Konta, Santoro's lawyer said. “They were like children who couldn’t accept a puzzle piece not fitting, so they smashed it until it was close enough.”

Santora’s lawyer, Michael Alber, said the evidence the police had amassed through months of wiretaps and recorded conversations amounted to “snippets, distorted and out of context."

The recordings, he added, failed to even prove that Santora was associated with the loan-sharking and gambling operations.

“It will be crystal clear at the end of the trial that you will have every reason to doubt Mr. Santora’s involvement in this case,” Alber said

DOMINICK CICALE, A FORMER CAPO IN THE BONANNO CRIME FAMILY, ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
In 1999, Bronx-based Dominick Cicale finished his second years-long bit and hooked up with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, then an up-and-coming member of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno crime family.

Initially he'd been closely affiliated with "Big Ernie" in the Genovese family.

Roy DeMeo was a ruthless killer -- not a nice guy, not a guy worthy of admiration in any way -- but in the context of Cosa Nostra he is an endlessly fascinating portrait of a mobster who had a great business sense.

Paulie Castellano didn't want to make Roy, but eventually was too greedy not to--Roy was bringing in too much cash to not notice, combined with a blood lust that enabled him to commit torture murders not common even for mobsters.
Roy had a crew of young wannabes, many of whom would eventually get their buttons, such as Gemini Twins Anthony Senter and Joey Testa, who hooked up with the Lucchese's after leaving Roy.

As reported, an FBI bug installed in the home of Gambino family soldier Angelo Ruggiero picked up an intriguing conversation between Angelo and Gene Gotti, a brother of John Gotti.

In the conversation, it is revealed Paul Castellano had put out a hit on DeMeo, but was having difficulty finding someone willing to do the job. Gene Gotti said his brother Joh…

He was considered a dangerous man. A truck hijacker and gun-runner, he was tied to two crime families (the Bonannos and Lucheses) and operated a swag-filled warehouse.

He was known for his nice gold watches and good suits. He also preferred driving around in a Mercedes.

In reality, his name was not Vincent Spinelli, and he was far from being a criminal; in fact, he was an NYPD officer working undercover. The operation lasted three years and led to 42 arrests (21 were reputed Bonanno mobsters, the rest presumably were Luchese members, plus assorted associates -- plus there was at least one grandmother who lived in a social club in The Bronx).

Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York, restaurant known as Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)

Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

Anthony Colombo died on January 6 in San Diego of complications from diabetes.Anthony was Joseph Colombo's son.When Joseph Colombo learned a boss was planning to take out other New York bosses in order to take control of the Mafia's Commission, Colombo showed fealty to Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, two of the key targets of the plotting. As a reward for his loyalty, Colombo was then named boss of one of New York's Five Families -- the Profaci family, which was rechristened the Colombo family.I've been working on a story about Anthony but meanwhile I thought it appropriate to republish a previous story we did with Anthony, a Q&A about a book he'd recently written about his father's shooting at the second Italian-American unity day.We want to thank Anthony Jr. for assisting Cosa Nostra News in getting the interview; we offer him and the Colombo family our solemn condolences.Anthony Colombo recently took the time to answer some questions for the following …

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Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York, restaurant known as Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)

Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

NOTE: We will update this -- again, we post it as it includes some questionable assertions. Let us know what you find correct or not, in the comments....We also hear that a friend of ours is sick -- we want to wish him well.... Get better, guy!
Many high-profile organized crime figures reportedly hail from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Many Bensonhurst wiseguys are gone today, dead, in prison or Witness Protection -- or in New Jersey.... Unless of course, they are in another part of Brooklyn or another borough or Long Island, or somewhere else (to cover all bases).

It's one of gangland's most high-profile, enigmatic hits -- and the identity of the killer has been debated for decades.

Thomas "Tommy Two-Guns" DeSimone killed a made member of the Mafia -- and for that, among other things, he was killed in what's been described as a classic setup. The truth is, we know very little about this murder, including who pulled the trigger. (Or fired up the chainsaw depending on who you believe). DeSimone, technically, disappeared, meaning there's zero evidence as to how he was killed; in fact, it can't be said with absolute certainty that he was killed.

Still, he was killed. Guys like him don't just disappear into thin air. They'd never leave New York because everything they want -- a certain lifestyle, basically -- is in New York and cannot be duplicated anywhere else.